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Times-Advocate, 1988-11-09, Page 2Page 2 • Times -Advocate, November 9, 1988 Panel queried on a wide range of educational concerns EXETER - A surprisingly large turn=out of over 40 citizens packed the South Huron and District High School library on the evening of November 3 .to question both al- ready acclaimed local school trustees and the two men contending for the job of representing Exeter forthe next three years on the4Iuron County Board of Education. The au- dience included candidates running • for Exeter council, and represcnta- tives from teachers' organizations. The four panelists - Tuckersmith Hensall rep Sally •Rathwell, Ste- phen township's ncw trustee Bonnie Slaght and Exeter candidates Jim Chapman and Gerald Meurer - were queried on topics ranging from levi- tation to evolution. State . intentions Before opening the meeting_ to questions from the floor, chairman Bruce Shaw allowed each to make a brief statement. . One of Rathwell's prime concerns is the alarming decrease in capital .grants to Huron County. She said none were received from the provin- cial government last year, while provincial taxes are paying for new schools in Toronto and Mississau- ga. She termed this one of a grow- • ing category of issues being decided at Queen's Park. "Sitting back and letting schools fall behind will only mean inquality for our children, and ratepayers will pay the piper down the road", she said. Slaght, whose predecessor Harry Hayter served for 15 years on the board, expressed the hope that in three years she would gain as much -knowledge as Rathwell had in her first term. Focmer Exeter Public School principal Jim Chapman stated his belief that a "good, solid" public ed- ucation is necessary, and education • should be a, shared process among the home, the school and the corn- munity. Chapman listed the increasingly crowded curriculu}n and lack of capi- tal financing as two prime concerns. He .foresees the coming of day care and requests for multicultural and other specific Courses and programs putting more pressure on the sys- tem. Noting that the cost to keep a stu- dent -in secondary- school for 'one year is currently 55,800, Chapman said if elected his goal would be "to provide the best system possible with the resources wc have availa- first question, asking the tour for their reaction to the recent decision banning the reciting of -the Lord's. prayer in Ontario's public schools. Chapman said he was disappoint - cd, but the public school is open to all faiths. He added his wish that Christian teaching was part of the curriculum. SHDHS. Verona Snider repeated a student's story about being intro- duced to meditation techniques. • Saying she shared these concerns, Rathwell said her biggest job is to encourage parents to first go to the teacher with any cqmplaint, before resorting to more heavyhanded methods to register objections. DISCUSS EDUCATION - Two contenders for the position of Exeter school board trustee Jim Chapman (left) and Gerald Merner joined newly acclaimed Tuckersmith-H(,nsall trustee Sally Rathwell and Stephen township rep Bonnie Slaght at a public meeting held in the SHDHS library on November 3. - ble". He .believes in local authori- Rathwell pointed out trustees arc Chapman agreed, pointing out ty, balancing that with the recogni- elected to represent the -views of all- "griping in the coffee shop is tion "we can't do it alone". ratepayers. She is upset with the . wrong"; if any parent is dissatisfied, Merner stated his desire to be an direction public education is taking, there -is a process in place to solve active participant in future educa- but would rather have Christian the problem. tion programs. He is concerned teaching out than "giving it equal Merner said he has always al - that the schools are producing so- time with witches". lowed his own childrento be ex-- cial illiterates as the emphasis has Merner said taking such Christian posed to many different ideas and moved away from a basic academic teaching out of the public system discuss them at home; by the time - core to classes on moral values and while funding Catholic teaching in they reach high school, young peri - social and economic subjects. He' the separate schools for the past plc have developed their own rea- said he would like to apply his three years .was hypocritical. " soning training to the difficult financial de- _ Occult - practices„.Chairman Shaw interjected to cisions to be made as school boards Pentecostal pastor Don Rogerspeak as principal of SHDHS. He attempt to balance the needs and the voiced his concern about occult . had been infonned of the levitation. desires of the public. practices being taught in the episode, and described it as an exer- Banning prayer school, saying he had heard of an else in concentration and trust, "a Teacher Doug Pearson posed the experiment in levitation at far cry from the supernatural”. He Osborne council EXETER..- Developers Ross and Joyce Carter, accompanied by their solicitor, Ralph Smith, attended the November 1 meeting of Usborne township council while the require- ments of a draft development agree- ment between themselves and council was discussed with Huron County planner Carol Leeming.... A cost-sharing arrangement pro- posed by the Ausablc Bayfield Con- servation Authority for maintenance of the guard rails at Morrison Dam was accepted. The township and the Exeter PUC will each be assessed 7.5 percent, and the province is ex- pected to provide a grant for the re- maining 85 percent. The agreement will be renegotiated if the grant por- tion should change. Darlings IGA, EMA Foods and Exeter Valumart will be receiving letters from council asking the stores to recycle their cardboard boxes and pack groceries in paper • hags in order to alleviate disposal Recycling Continued from front page 1 cotnmcnd Morley for the work he has done on this, project. We have talked around it tong enough. if the works department doesn't come up "with better figures, wc will go with Money's proposal. Mayor Bruce Shaw in proposing delay for one month said, " We en- trusted Morley to do a job. He has brought in a proposal. I'd Tike to hear one voice rather than two:" problems at landfill sites. • Councillors also supported a reso- lution originating with Zurich council asking. that a local soft drink distributor not be allowed to switch from bottles to cans, as this -too would affect waste disposal. The S239.08 profit reported by .the township poundkccper was di- nated to improvements at the Thames Road hall park. Expenses wcrc 52,383, but the sale of stray cattle had brought in revenue of S2,622.08. Reeve Gerry Prout declared a con- flict of. interest and IcIt the -room while Huron County consent forms regarding severance applications re- ceived from Donald and Joyce Brown and Beverly Prout wcrc re- viewed and completed with deputy reeve Margaret 1-Icrn in the chair. A request was received from Kirk - ton waste disposal site office Daniel Verbeke, asking for a small build- ing to•he placed at the dump to pro- vide protection from winter weath- er. Prout rcported.on a recycling con- ference attended by himself and councillor Jini Kerslake recently in Ottawa., He recommended that the township acquire some recycling boxes for public school classrotmis, and that council investigate the fea- sibility of having recycling bins set up at the dump. The building inspector reported two building permits with a total value of 517.(X)) were issued in Oc- tober. • EPSON DON'T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS •Cor"oute. _ games aria -ed. & cational soil ware are also available tlt;t1:Y aitf)til3 [ltIT I i EDUITY I - • • •.•..e,... •. "` *" (•.o^ .. Me •;.•.. • • • 159500 Hard Drive Model With Printer Only $1895.00 LAND 4 --In Exeter area please contact 0 W. Parsons & Associates Inc. �96 Main Street South, Exeter Ontario NOM ISO � INCINC.i (519) 235.1304 Village defense still to come at Sarnia beach trial SARNIA - After 32 days in court, Grand.Bcnd has yet to present key_ testimony to defend its title to- the beach arca claimed by Malcolm (Ar- c is Gibbs. - The semi of-th-e—court cast owned on .October 24 in Sar- nia and Gibbs' lawyer Julius Mct- nitzer brought forth testimony from .21 -witnesses and .presented 322 pieces of evidence to prove Gibbs' ownership of the beach. strip be- tween Grand Bend's Main Street and the Ausahlc River government pier. Gibbs has a deed that claims a section of land behind the crown al- lowance for banks and waterways. The court has to determine if such a parcel of land can be private proper- ty. The decision is expected to have far-reaching effects on many municipalities with waterfronts in Ontario.. • An appraisal expert testified such a parcel of land would he worth SI.2 million to developers. Gibbs' lawyer contends his client should be recompensed 52 million for trespass and loss of income on the property. "They arc saying the govcrnmgtt, in effect, expropriated (the bca )," said Grand Bend's defense lawyer Dan --Murphy, promising he would bring at least 25-30 witnesses to the stand to reinforce the village's right to the beach when court re- turns on November 14. He expects a verdict within four weeks. • "It's a very difficult cast," said Murphy. "I hope Grand Bend will win it. "Grand Bend has got a good argu- ment and a good case, but the plain- tiffs also think they have a good case," hc said. To prove the claim that the beach land is worth S1.2 million,•Murphy explained that four proposals were shown to the court for possible de- velopment: an. 18 -lot subdivision in two rows, a 15 -lot subdivision in one row, a 53 -unit townhouse proposal, and a beachfront amuse- ment park with,several riles. One objection to B"IA expansion EXETER- Council has received only one objection to its intentions to pass a bylaw to allow expansion of the Exeter Business Improvement Association to all businesses within town limits. in regular session Monday night, council authorized clerk -treasurer Liz Bell to prepare the bylaw for reading at the first meeting in De- cember. During the discussion, Bell said about 150 letters were sent out and only one objection was received and it came from Syb de Boer, president of Syfilco Ltd. . Following discussion, Mayor Bntcc Shaw said, " It appears coun- cil is asked to act on thc wishes of the 149 other businesses in his letter do Boer says, "As an industry within the expanding B.I.A. arca, it is of no advantage to us to be a member. Our industry docs not cater to the general public and would not benefit from shared programs and unified promotion methods." • He continued, " Our sales market is not in this arca. We arc not a re- tail or scrvicc orientated business, but arc classified under Provincial and Federal Labour and Taxation_ laws asa manufacturing industry which is quite different than the re- tail and scrvicc industry." de Boer concluded, ' This is not a matter of money, but it's a matter of principle., Forcing membership upon us causes us to protest the proposed 'bylaw. As a taxpayer of this community and a generator Of revenue from outside of Exeter into Exctcr, I appeal to you as a council to change the bylaw to give busi- ness an option on membership be- fore the expansion is approved. ' Syfilco's objection was ty—only one received. If any ohjecti is rc- ccivcd, council must get. Ontario Municipal Board approval before the bylaw can be passed. CIBC 44 Thames Rd, Exeter NEW HOURS Saturday 9:30 - 1:00 Mon. - Thursday Friday 9:30 - 4:30 9:30 - 8:00 Our goal at CIBC is to make Banking more convenient for you ON SATURDAY NOV. 26, 1988 we will have a professional photographer at our branch 10 to 4 o'clock Please call 235-1050 for an appointment to receive a COMPLIMENTARY (8 X 10) colour portraitof you or your family. Get us working for you! also knew of the meditation, which had occurred in a theatre arts class, and assured the audience one of the two teachers in theatre arts was "a Mennonite, and definitelynot an ad- vocate of the supernatural or"devil. worship" - - In response to a question from Harry Stuart, Shaw said students know they can opt out of such classes, the same as they can opt out of. phye Cd -or- the study of cer-, tain novels they or their parents find objectionable. "Parents can go and sit in on classes", Rathwell asserted. "No problem. Just check with the office first", Shaw confirmed Evolution .and `creation • Stuart -had another question. "He asked for agreement that evolution should be stressed as theory,'not fact. Merrier, who responded first, dubbed` the question "a can 'of worms". He went on to say he could not reconcile the geologists' datings of millions of years with the Bible's thousands. He does per- ceive .creation as supernatural, but does not discard the possibility it could have happened as Darwin the- orized. . Chapman said evolution "is taught as theory here to keep from coming out as seemingly factual". • Noting that her son knew which came 'first, the chicken, not the egg, Ratbwcll said children bring their values to school. She to1r, how her child had initiated discus- sion on creation by hanging a -book on dinosaurs to school. Rogers felt the teaching at..present was•one-sided. He wanted to know if boards could "push" more em- phasis to creation teaching. "Evolution is not proven. but is taught as though it was. Why not teach both, and let kidschose?", he wanted to know. • • • Chapman assured -him the issue can be raised, discussed and voted on at clic board level. Funding - OFTA representative R(ip Snell . brought up the shrinking percentage of the province's share of niones for education. All four panelists w-ould thy to reverse the cuts. Chapman wants -an alternative to basing taxes on property values: a method he considers outdated and inequitable. In Mcrncr's opinion, the hoard (Please turn to page 13A Double ike by Bruce Shaw Last week I talked of the misdirection of vast sums ormoncy to- ward the disposal of PCB s, probably at the expense of a concentrat- ed effort against acid rain, air and water pollution. This week, I'd like to look at two other areas that indicate we have abandoned the age of reason for the age of Stupidity. (incpentally my comments on both will probably get me into a great deal of trouble - but...). - - What wc arc doing -to our language to emasculate it is ridiculous. Language evolves very slowly, but steadily over generations; how- ever, it is alive and so must change. St. Paul's Cathedral was once described as 'artificial' and 'awful' - an insult? - No, both words were compliments: a work of true art and awe - inspiring. As well, Eng- lish must be very difficult for others to learn: 'inflammable' and 'flammable' mean the same thing; 'cleave' means to cling and to sep- arate. Examples of the inconsistency, humour and strangeness in the English language have become the basis for games and puzzles. Words are powerful, entertaining and effective when marshalled by an orator, a poct or a writer for particular purposes. Many words we use today have undergone such changes that we no longer know thcir roots. The issue at hand is the removal of :sexism' in words. Docs 'chairman' mean 'the man in the chair'? Docs 'salesman' mean a 'man of sales'? Docs 'mankind' exclude women? Could not a woman be a'foreman'? Should men who have not conformed to the ncw jargon he branded :sexist' and women who prefer the traditional words as 'unliberated'? (sounds like Andy Rooney, doesn't it?) The people; men and women, who become exercised over the use of these words should re -direct their enthusiasm and indignation to the real problems of our society and our world. Only a fool would use these words as a put-down of women! Indeed they arc far better words than the mechanical, clinical expressions: chairperson, per- sonkind, foreperson, and others that, under the circumstances, would make as much sense: peoplchole (manhole), wo-person (woman), personipulate (manipulate). Sec, pretty stupid, right? (Andy should have thought of this one.) The second is more serious - now I'm in for it - the use of the Lord's Prayer in Ontario's schools. The court has said that this prayer is not suitable as thc only prayer used because, it would ap- pear, atheists and those of other religions might find it offensive. in defense of the Lord's Praycr, two arguments come readily to mind and arc directed to these two groups of people. How can you offend an atheist? He is the one rejecting the beliefs of ()piers, no matter what those beliefs arc. He has the right now of 6cusing himself from the moment of worship. Let him continue to remove. himself. The second would be directed at those who have other beliefs. Those people realize that this country's,.roots, rightly or wrongly, arc Christian. When they or their ancestors came to Canada, they should have known they wcrc coming to a Christian nation, just as we know if we go to Israel we will go to a Jewish nation, where Christianity is not accepted by the vast majority of its inhabitants. Is it not reasonable to assume that most Canadians today still sub- scribe, either actively or passively, to Christianity, and consequent- ly, is it fair to dcny these forum for public expression of their faith'' 1 believe that it is a bad idea to neutralize our religions and heritage or culture in the name of freedom.. and democracy. The Lord's Prayer has been part of our school curriculum from the start, presumably to maintain a link between Church and State, and also, perhaps, be- cause they arc good words - let's expose our kids to more good words. (note: Next week is part 3, and the last in this topic. Last week's winner was Joanne Wareham. No more grammar errors though; the wags at the TA said, 'of the 25 errors hc made, which one was delib- erate?) * * * * difficult to know what to say when one is personally involved with an issue, because the opening is there to accuse one of bias and perhaps blindness. Dave's family; friends and i found ourselves in that position Nov. t as we reSd.on one page the editorial against vi- olence in hockey, as illustrated by goons such as Dave Shaw, and the threat on the sport's'pa levelled against Dave by a Pittsburgh player. Needless tosay w are concerned and anxious. • Everyone who knows ave will attest to the fact that he is a de- cent, quiet, personable young man who is anything bit a hockey goon, and certainly should not be maligned by being compared to those who maliciously and deliberately set out to hurt someone. Dave must bear ultimate responsibility for what he did Sunday, but the act, if you see the tape or know the man, was an impulsive reaction to an unwarranted attack by a momentarily frustrated super-" star. The impact of the "crime" was intensified by the injured Mario Lemieux who lay on the ice for five minutes and then Icft unassist- ed Those who have the power should make every effort to eliminate hockey violence, and those who buck the rules should pay the con sequences, but you, as a formulator of public opinion, should not pass judgement and condemn without knowing all the data. There I no similarity whatsoever in the two inciden is stated (Tochet and Shaw), other than an offence was perpetrate, We realize that the damage has been done, but we also want thou interested to know that Dave's actions should riot be condoned, but he should not be condemned.